England 1558-1603. The nasty genes of the Blackadder dynasty bubble back to the surface as Lord Edmund swaggers around town with a big head and a small beard in search of grace and favor from the stark raving mad Queen Bes... more &raquos.DVD Features:

Movie Reviews

Better than Blackadder I - and is no small feat!

Deborah MacGillivray | US & UK | 12/30/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This series of episodes has the decedent of the first Edmund Blackadder in Elizabethan times. Atkinson, quite dapper in his beard, is still plotting with a lot of cunning plans to further his lot in life with the decedent of his friend Percy and his Dogsbody Baldrick. This time Edmund is up against Queen Baby who borders on nutso, with nursey at her side.These episodes 1 - Bells finds Edmund employing a new servant named BOB - much to Baldrick's distress. Just as things seems to turn out all right in comes FLASH his best man and complicates all.Episode 2 - Head - Queenie appoints Edmund Lord High Executioner and she keep his hopping with "off with their heads" only Edmund gets a little ahead of himself and lops one head too manyIn Episode 3 - Potato - Edmund is furious that Sir Raleigh has returned and curries favour with Queenie, so he Percy and Baldrick set out to find the new world...but they bring back something rather different!Episode 4. Money - has the Bishop of Barton Wells after Edmunds for money owed, only Edmund does not have it and is dashing about madly to get it before the Bishop gets out his hot pokersEpisode 5 - Beer - is one of the best of the series - Edmund has
his uncle and aunt - religious people - coming for supper. But the Queen has Edmund in a drinking contest with her PM. Add an oddly shape turnip in to the mix and the Goblin song and it is riot!Episode 6 - Chains - has a mad German master of disguise trying to rule the world. He kidnaps Edmund and the PM, and the Queen can only ransom one....A side-splitting great time!"

Black Adder turns history upside down on its head. Forget whatever you learnt of the Tudors because you will have to re-learn it when you watch the "real history" of Black Adder.

For those who are unfamiliar with this series, it may take you a while to understand the nuances and "read between the lines". But this ability to understand the humor will increase as you watch the series. A general underlying truth is that each episode gets funnier as you move forward in this series.

Rowan Atkinson is positively brilliant! Honestly speaking, I think that his performance in this series is just head and shoulders above his comedy in Mr. Bean."

One of two seasons...

Photoscribe | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania USA | 12/23/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Of this series that has to be one of the funniest things I've ever seen committed to videotape and broadcast! "Blackadder II" involves the fortunes of a descendant of the first "Blackadder" series living in the Elizabethan period of Merry Olde England along with a descendant of the first Blackadder's dogsbody, Baldrick and his distant relative Percy. Edmund Blackadder is a court favorite of the Queen, here played by Miranda Richardson as a spoiled, capricious brat who always gets her way and pretty much behaves like a child for the run of the series. It's a brilliant portrayal, but a presumed fiction, as Elizabeth I is generally considered to be one of the more enlightened leaders in Britain's history.

You have to wonder what goes on in the minds of British comedy writers, as the premises for the episodes here are wild and varied. The episode "Potato" is one of the funniest, with Tom Baker, of "Dr. Who" fame, portraying an eccentric pirate/sea captain enlisted by Blackadder to help him show up the smug bore, Sir Walter Raleigh. "Beer" involves Edmund trying to juggle entertaining his extremely puritan relatives with holding a drinking contest with his buddies from Elizabeth's court. The scene where he tries to concoct a lie "on the fly" as to why a monk from the drinking contest group roars drunk into the room crying "Great booze-up, Edmund!" while BA is hosting his relatives is probably the funniest in the entire run of the "Blackadder" series. The "See you, Jimmy" scene from "Chains" is also funny as the blazes!

I've often wondered how the erudite, sophisticated Edmund Blackadder could be played by the same actor who parlays the meek, nerdy, retiring "Mr. Bean". It almost looks like the two characters are being played by twin brothers, they're so different in temperament, and, to be honest, level of sophistication in the humor. Anywho, about the only thing from British television that even comes CLOSE to equalling "Blackadders II & III" in tone and genius is the very clever "Red Dwarf" series, (all eight years!) a satire on "Dr. Who" melded with "The Odd Couple in Space".

I can't recommend this and "Blackadder III" highly enough!"

Best British series EVER!!!!!!

dlechner | Chicago, IL United States | 06/09/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Black Adder is without a doubt the funniest series to have ever come from England - yes - funnier than Monty Phython!!! Although I have never been a fan of Mr Bean - Rowan Atkinson proves his comedic genius in this, the best of the Adder seasons. However, it does help to have SOME knowledge of the time period in which this series takes place.If you are new to the Black Adder, I recommend this series as a great starting point."